Star St Kilda midfielder Luke Ball is unlikely to return for this Sunday's AFL clash with Essendon at Telstra Dome, casting doubt on his fitness ahead of the finals.

Ball, who suffered a hamstring injury in round 18, failed to train fully with his Saints teammates on Wednesday.

Should he miss the match, he will have had spent the past month on the sidelines, a less than ideal preparation heading into his club's finals campaign.

"He's more unlikely than likely at this stage ... but there's still a chance that he will play," coach Ross Lyon said.

"He's running pretty strong but I'll wait until the end of the week."

Lyon brushed aside concerns about whether Ball would be match-hardened enough for September action and any suggestion his team's intensity would drop off after claiming the last finals spot last weekend.

He said he would be picking the best available team and would urge them to keep the pedal to the floor, citing Geelong's mindset as his own club's aspiration.

"Clearly we're in the business of winning football games," Lyon said.

"We've worked very hard to put ourselves in a position where we're playing better football and we're not going to flirt with that.

"The benchmark team in the competition is Geelong ... they've clearly got a strong mandate to playing their best football and playing honest football and not falling into any habits they wish to.

"So I think if it's good enough for Geelong, it's clearly good enough for this group who are still trying to build to their best football."

Lyon said the Saints were mindful the Bombers will be playing with more emotion on Sunday with Adam Ramanauskas, Jason Johnson and Damien Peverill playing their final games for Essendon.

But he did not believe it would automatically result in the Saints falling behind from the start.

"First 30 minutes the emotion of Robert Harvey (who had his tribute match last weekend) didn't mean much," he said.

"We were behind by about 24 points at one stage, and it could have easily been 30.

Given the clash will be played as a twilight fixture on Sunday, Lyon hoped the AFL would give his team a seven-day break before their first final.

"We'll take what comes, in a perfect scenario you'd get the regulation break but those things are out of your control," Lyon said.

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